Sweat Flop: Sports Club/LA gets heat exhaustion.
Will NYC’s own Equinox buy swanky Cali rival?
It seems the flashy California-body-and-lifestyle pioneer Sports Club/LA overdid it a bit (maybe the on-premises dry cleaning left them winded). When the company opened its Reebok Sports Club on Columbus Avenue in 1995, it attracted the boldfaced from Kathleen Turner to Leonardo DiCaprio. (Jerry Seinfeld met Jessica Sklar there, too.) Then it overexpanded—there are ten nationwide, many in mixed-use towers owned by New York–based Millennium Partners (which is also part owner of the clubs). But they’re losing money, and have run into increased competition from other sweat palaces, including New York–based Equinox, which has thirteen clubs locally and will also have nine in California by the end of the year. Now Sports Club/LA is thinking about pressing the big red panic button on the Stairmaster and selling out. “We have gone through a process of looking at ways to improve our balance sheet,’’ says Rex Licklider, CEO of the Sports Club Company, including a sale, and Millennium and Equinox want it. Meanwhile, a source familiar with the financials says that Sports Club/LA is attempting to get out of its lease with Tishman Speyer for the Rockefeller Center club (which, according to the source, loses $3 million a year). In any case, Millennium says that’s one it’s not interested in buying.
—Beth Landman